Novel Objects

There are 12 species of Fribbles, each with 81 exemplars. Fribbles are made of colored, distinct parts and a given species has a prototype, with each individual a certain hamming distance from this prototype. The archive also includes Strata 3D CX models for the 12 Fribble species. We also include, a text file containing a matrix of similarity ratings between pairs of some exemplars of the Fb3 (LORO) species (see Williams, 1998, Appendix B). The original Fribbles were brightly colored and textured. We also include an archive with the three most-different exemplars of all 12 species (36 pictures total), all rendered in a uniform blue color with the same smooth texture.

Of note, there is also the "See and Grasp Data Set" from Robbie Jacobs' lab at the University of Rochester. This data set is based on the Fribbles, but includes visual and haptic features for a set of 40 Fribbles.

This image set contains 10 single part objects - Geons. Each object is qualitatively different from the others in the set. Objects were modeled after those in Biederman and Gerhardstein's (1993) JEP:HPP article. The set includes rotations in depth around the vertical axis of 0, 45, and 90 deg (labeled A, B, and C). One nice property is that the 0 to 45 deg rotations show the same visible image features, but the 45 to 90 deg rotations show qualitatively different image features. This allows a comparison between equal magnitude rotations with differing degrees of qualitative change. See Hayward and Tarr's (1997) JEP:HPP article for an experiment using these objects and more on this topic.

A set of scripts and files for 3DS MAX that allow you to combine Greeble parts to create new Greebles. This was written some time ago and it is up to you to debug, etc. We won't provide technical support.

The notorious Greeble object set. Scott Yu designed these objects as a control set for faces - discriminating among them requires attention to subtle variations in shape and they are hierarchically organized into genders and families, as well as individuals. See the readme.txt file for an explanation of the current naming scheme. Images are TIFFs generated from the new 3DS Max versions of the Greebles (they correspond to the included MAX or 3DS files). The 3D file format is 3D Studio Max which should be importable into many different 3D modeling programs (extension .max). Each Greeble should contain the same camera positions and have a standard textured purple shading. The archive includes two viewpoints for each Greeble, plus the .max and .3ds files (thanks to Jeff Munson, University of Washington, for converting the MAX files to the more portable 3DS format).

This image set was created by Mohsin Malik using FormZ for a computational project that Pepper Williams and I work on. The objects were adapted from the 10 objects used in the 1992 Hummel and Biederman Psych Review paper (the JIM model). Unlike most of the other sets included on this page, the images are in JPEG format and the 3D models are included for use with FormZ.

This image set contains 10 objects composed of 5 parts per an object. Each object has a different central Geon and 4 parts are attached around it. Objects were modeled after those in Biederman and Gerhardstein's (1993) JEP:HPP article. The set includes rotations in depth around the vertical axis of 0, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 deg (as well as a few misc rotations). One nice property of these objects is that the 0 to 45 deg rotations show the same visible parts, but the 45 to 90 deg rotations show different visible parts. This allows a comparison between equal magnitude rotations with differing degrees of qualitative change. See Hayward's (1998) JEP:HPP article for an experiment using these objects and more on this topic.

This image set was created by Isabel Gauthier for use in a study on how semantic and perceptual similarity influence one another. There are 4 complete homogeneous classes of shapes, 6 shapes per class, plus some distractor shapes from other classes. Each shape is shown in the 0, 55, 110, and 165 deg orientations (clockwise picture-plane rotation). See Gauthier, James, Curby, & Tarr (2003) for experiments using these shapes and more on this topic.

This image set was created by Scott Yu using AliasSketch and contains 12 (actually 13) objects composed of 5 parts per an object. These objects have been used in a variety of studies in our lab, including experiments on class generalization, the effect of perceptual similarity on viewpoint, and how changes in illumination conditions influence recognition performance.

This image set was created by Pepper Williams for use in several studies on how the 3D structure of objects is represented in visual memory. The unique thing about this set (unlike those created and used by Schacter and Cooper) is that there are three versions of each object (40 objects in total): possible, impossible1 (one impossible part), impossible3 (three impossible parts). See Williams and Tarr (1997) and (1998) for papers using these stimuli.

The famous Shepard & Metzler (1971) 3D object set. Roger Shepard gave me xeroxes of the original set that he distributed. We have scanned the images in at 300dpi. Included is the original readme file by Roger explaining the organization of the set. Beyond still being useful for research, these objects hold a place as perhaps the first computer-generated complex stimulus set used in visual psychophysics. All of us owe a huge debt to Roger. Graham Dean has also kindly provided the Shepard & Metzler objects as 3D models (in DXF format). Be sure to read his README.TXT. Shepard, R. N., and Metzler, J. (1971). Mental Rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171, 701-703.

This image set was created by Marion Zabinski using a program written by Volker Blanz and contains 40 (actually 39) objects composed of 5 parts per an object. Each object is composed of a linear chain of Geons. Objects were inspired by Poggio, Edelman and Bulthoff's work, as well Biederman and Gerhardstein's (1993) variation. The set (STANDARD COLORS only) include rotations in depth around the vertical axis of -90, -60, -30, 0, 30, 60, and 90 deg. There are actually 4 sets of 10 objects - as a default all parts are composed of tubes. The sets vary in how many of the parts are unique Geons rather than tubes. Set 0 has no unique Geons in each object, Set 1 has 1 unique Geon in the middle of each object, Set 3 has 3 Geons in the middle of each object, and Set 5 has 5 Geons (and no tubes; an error resulted in only 9 objects in this set). File names are coded as: Set#.Object#.View. See Tarr, et al.'s (1997) Psychological Science article for experiments using these objects and more on this topic.

This image set was created by Will Hayward using Strata StudioPro and contains 5 objects composed of 2 parts per an object - all 10 parts are qualitatively different from one another. Objects appear in 9 viewpoints separated by 10 deg increments (the 0 deg viewpoint is straight on and the 90 deg viewpoint is a profile view). No views are near mirror reflections of other views. Both parts are visible from every viewpoint. As such, these objects fulfill Biederman and Gerhardstein's conditions for viewpoint invariance (we actually found viewpoint dependence). See Hayward and Tarr's (1997) JEP:HPP article for sequential matching and naming experiments that use these objects and more on this topic.

This image set was created by Jerome Harris as a more artifactually-appearing 3D novel object set as a contrast for Greebles and YUFOs. There are 6 families, with 6 visually-similar individuals per family. One folder has the 3DS-MaxR5 models and the other folder has a high-res render from on viewpoint for each individual.

Yu's Un-Facelike Objects. These puppies were created by Scott Yu as successors to the Greebles. Again there are families and genders. They do look like some sort of evil creatures. But not faces. Really. There are eight (8) folders containing different families of YUFOs. Each family consists of both male and female individuals rendered from several different viewpoints (all families), or from the same viewpoint, but with different lighting directions (only 5 of the families). Named by famous cognitive neuroscientist, Rene Marois.